www.goodreadingmagazine.com
good reading december 2011 / january 2012
20
writer’s life
Sydney writer KaTe ForSyTH, author of
more than 20 books for children and adults,
tells of her hardy authoress ancestor who
battled bushrangers and an alcoholic husband
but still found the time and energy to write
australia’s first children’s book.
running in THe
Family
Talent often runs in the family, like an heirloom passed from
one generation to another.
There are musical families, from the Mozarts to the Minogues.
There are acting families, from the Barrymores to the Baldwins.
There are even tennis families, like Serena and Venus Williams and
the McEnroe brothers.
And there are writing families. Geraldine
Brooks and her sister, Darleen Bungey.
A S Byatt and her sister, Margaret
Drabble. Kingsley Amis and his
son, Martin. Sophie Dahl and her
grandfather, Roald.
Then there’s my family. I’ve had
24 books published in 13 countries, and
have made my living from my writing
since I was in my 20s. My sister Belinda is an
internationally published
children’s writer (Belinda
Murrell) and my brother
is the bestselling author
of books on property,
tax and business (Nicholas
Humphrey). And many other relatives
have published books, articles and stories.
Among the most famous of these is Louisa
Atkinson, the first Australian-born female
novelist and journalist.
Yet the most remarkable of all those writers
was forgotten for many years. She struggled
against poverty, grief and violence to write the
first children’s book published in
Australia, only to have her identity remain
secret for almost 140 years. Even now, 170
years after her book was published, few
Australians know who she was.
Charlotte Waring was born in 1796
into an old and wealthy family whose
ancestors had come to England with
William the Conqueror. A child prodigy,
she could read fluently at the age of four
and was a talented artist who studied with the
well-known landscape painter John Glover. But when she was 15
her father died and left all his property and money in trust for his
baby son. Like many a heroine of a Brontë novel, Charlotte was
forced to find work as a governess.
Charlotte was strong willed and strong minded, and used
to a life of privilege. The lowly status and pay lacerated her
independent spirit. So, in 1826, when she saw an advertisement
in The Times offering an astounding 100 pounds – twice the usual
rate for a governess – she applied at once.
What the advertisement failed to mention was that the position
was as governess to the Macarthur family in the newly established
colony of Sydney, New South Wales. London newspapers were
full of articles about shipwrecks, escaped convicts, attacks by the
native Aborigines, smallpox epidemics and bushfires. Twenty-four
other governesses all applied for the job. They all withdrew their
applications once they realised where they were expected to work.
charlotte
waring
belinda
murrell
nicholas
Humphrey
Kate Forsyth
20-21_writers_life_c.indd 20
2/11/11 11:00:45 PM